The ban on sending identification documents and passports abroad for Ukrainian men aged 18 to 60 comes into effect amid news of Ukraine suspending new applications for consular support for military-age men abroad following a new mobilization law passed recently.

The Ukrainian government, further tightening pressure on men of call-up age abroad as it seeks to address a shortage of troops, approved rules under which passports for military-age men can be issued only inside the country.

The provisions were announced on Wednesday and came a day after Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba suspended consular services for military-aged males until May 18 and also criticised those abroad for failing to serve in the 26-month-old war against Russia.

The foreign ministry said Tuesday that applicants seeking a special certificate declaring they wished to return to Ukraine would be able to get help at embassies and consulates.

It said regular services would resume on May 18 and that applications received after April 23, when the measure took effect, would be handled then.

That is when a new law on mobilisation is to come into effect that aims to increase troop numbers through incentives to volunteers and punishments for draft dodgers.

The latest government decision stipulated that passports for foreign travel for men aged 18 to 60 could only be issued inside Ukraine.

The foreign ministry said private agencies would no longer be able to handle passport applications, only government missions.

“Such passports are not sent to a separate subdivision or a foreign diplomatic mission of Ukraine for the purpose of organising their issue,” the text read.

It said the stipulation did not apply to nationals now permitted to cross state borders while martial law is in force, including those with disabilities.

Hundreds of thousands of military-age Ukrainian men are living abroad, including an estimated 860,000 in the European Union, and the country faces a shortage of troops in the campaign against Russia’s better equipped and larger military.

Ukraine adopted legislation this month overhauling how it mobilises civilian men into the armed forces.

In his comments on the suspension of consular services on Tuesday, Kuleba said it was incongruous that men subject to conscription were living abroad yet still wanted to receive state services.

“Staying abroad does not relieve a citizen of his or her duties to the homeland,” he wrote on X.

“The decision to suspend the process of providing consular services to the category of Ukrainian citizens specified by law is a temporary step due to the need to resolve issues related to the military registration of citizens of mobilisation age who are abroad,” the foreign ministry said.